ABSTRACT
The 1920s was a sports-crazed decade in Sweden, when a range of popular media celebrated national Olympian heroes as well as heroines while also expressing concerns that female athletes would be “masculinized.” Chapter 3 explores how Swedish commentators, from satirists to active sportswomen, struggled to define the physical capacity and agency of the female body. Beyond specific debates on the purpose of sports for women, this chapter also examines the wider role media played in popularizing while also critiquing the female athlete. Whether her body was described as modern or masculine, she was often utilized as a symbol of exciting progress—a limitless Amazon who nevertheless should pay attention to limits, especially in relation to her femininity. The analysis concludes that the image of the modern female athlete constituted a battleground for gender negotiations in the 1920s: While some focused on the masculinizing effects of sports, others predicted that femininity would be increasingly defined as sporty.
